Sunday, July 17, 2011

A Tale of Two Catchers

Starting pitcher:
M.C. O'Connor

Eli Whiteside had himself a day. In the 6th he argued a call on a dropped third strike and gave up 90 feet. That runner--it was ruled a passed ball--scored the go-ahead run. In the 7th, he reached when he forced out Miguel Tejada at second base. He then stole second and scored on a two-out hit by Andres Torres to tie the game. In the 9th he worked a walk off Heath Bell, and was replaced by Emmanuel Burriss. In a preview of things to come, MannyB stole second base. Chris Stewart, pinch-hitting, laid down a slick bunt to move him to third, showing us a little more of the coming attractions. The Burriss-Stewart combo would later win the game with some flashy old school ball, back when no one hit homers and they all had high socks. Single, steal, error, squeeze, run. Roger Craig would be overjoyed. Brian Wilson tried his best to blow the save, but The Man They Call Stew made a nifty pick-and-throw on a bunt to start big double play. FanGraphs says the win probability for San Diego went from 48.5% to 12.7% because of that. Way to go, Stewie. The two-headed hybrid of Eli and The Stewster will never equal Buster Posey, but that's what we've got and what we are sticking with, so "stay hot" as Kruk would say. The Giants, like the Japanese team today, needed extra time to find a way to win. But win they did.

Defending league champs Giants and Texas Rangers are both 55-41 on this date, and are both in first place (TX +4, SF +3.5) in their respective Western Divisions. Both clubs have the third-best records in their leagues.

5 comments:

On Whiteside's brain-fart in the 6th he still made the throw to first, the umpire blew the call.I'm liking Chris Stewart. Yeah he's a bad hitter, but he has sound fundamentals and one of the best arms I've ever seen for a catcher. Expectations for him were very low, but he's exceeded them.

The good thing is that we beat the Padres 3 games in a 4 game series, even though it took 2 extra-inning games to do so. Last year we were 6-12 against that team, we have already won 6 this year in 10 tries. Beating that team is just such a struggle. Admittedly, they have good pitching (not better than ours) but no one who can hit (not unlike us, but worse). Without looking, I'm betting that the only .300 hitter in the series was Sandoval.

Does anyone else get totally sickened by the mere sight of Mat Latos, particularly wearing one of those dopey camouflage uniforms? Especially after his sore loser outburst last season, he is a first class jackass. Let's just say that I'm 'Latos Intolerant'.

Nice to get 3 of 4 from that team. I'm still in favor of some offensive tweaks in the next few days. Nothing big ... just a 2011 Cody Ross-type player.

I love a good story and I love a crazy character. I love Mat Latos. I do, really. (Yes, I know he's a bit of an immature jerk.) He's a big, strong, fire-breathing beast who wants to demolish the batter. What's not to like about that? If he and Matt Cain had been cosmically switched this blog would have to be called "Latos Tolerant" (great idea, Ron). Of course, the team would not be as good if there were no Matt Cain, and Latos would just barely crack the Giants rotation (hello, Zito). The good guys (uh, the Giants) need some black hats--some dark knights--out there to duel with. I hate when the "jackass" beats the good guys, and I love it all the more when the good guys beat him. Did you see the ball he signed for a fan that said "I hate SF"? Fabulous. We'd all love a guy who wrote shit like that. I remember how much I hated Ron Cey back in the day when the Giants sucked. Now I miss that little fucker. There's not enough bad guys out there to get fired up about.